


A Vision of Peace

by Gerec



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Charles and his Four Space Consorts, Dark Charles, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 05:14:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5362688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerec/pseuds/Gerec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They call his people 'monsters' and say that a telepath is incapable of something as universal as falling in love. </p><p>But they're wrong about Charles Xavier, heir to the throne of Cerellia; for everything he does in life, he does for love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Vision of Peace

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afrocurl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/gifts).



> For this prompt: Falling In Love, Polyamory, Declarations Of Love  
> In some AU (let's assume Raven and Charles aren't raised together), tell me a love story. However you choose.

There are those who call him and his brethren ‘monsters’, their dominion over the mind rendering them incapable of something as simple and universal as love. They use his vast intellect and pragmatic sensibilities as proof of their claims; that he is cold and ruthless and a despot spoiling for war. That his relentless conquest of planets makes him the sworn enemy of all – for who but a telepath could hope to rule the galaxy alone?

They are wrong about him. And about many other things.

\----

Charles falls in love for the first time when he is eight years old.

She is a sparkling jewel in a sea of uncut gems, stunning and self-possessed as she is presented to the entirety of the Cerellian Court. But it is her mind that captures Charles like a butterfly inside a net, a scalpel of determination and pragmatism equal to his own heart. She is the beacon that guides his incomparable power, and together, they will hold sway over the minds of an entire people.

“The Lady Emma Frost, of the House of Frost, daughter of Lord Winston…and your future Consort.”

 _Hello_ , she whispers, bold and utterly fearless as he takes her hand. _If you let me, I will help you change our world._

Charles brushes his lips lightly against the delicate, porcelain skin and smiles. _Not just_ our _world my darling Emma,_ he answers, as the applause rises around them like the coming storm. _We are Cerellia’s future, you and I. And we are destined for much greater things._

\----

Charles falls in love for the second time when he is nineteen.

There are those who do not agree with the delegation’s appeal in the Galactic Senate, to the treaties the young Prince is determined to secure for Cerellia and her allies. Old prejudices are many and hatreds run deep, and power wielded is power sought – to be used or eliminated by the ones playing the ‘Game’. There will always be those who despise his race; who fear what they don’t understand and cannot control.

He is therefore, wholly unsurprised by the assassination attempt as he makes his way to his quarters from the Senate chambers.

He _is_ surprised when the assassin almost succeeds.

The man is a magnificent and lethal weapon, built to fight – and to survive - his claws shredding the armor of his guards like so much paper. His mind is a roiling mass of pain and forgotten memories, and too slippery for Charles to grasp and take hold. He is saved only by Emma’s timely intervention, a blow from her diamond form knocking the assassin out mid-strike. It takes the efforts of both the Prince and his new Consort combined, to remove the orders implanted by Stryker and set the man free.

His name is Logan, the assassin shares, later in Charles’ quarters. He will pledge his loyalty to Cerellia if Charles will take him in, for he has no memory of his life before, save a precious few. There is only Stryker, and the painful experimentation wrought against his will, giving him an adamantium skeleton where bone used to be. And there is the death of a wife Logan doesn’t remember – a death he can only attribute to the man who tortured and enslaved him.

 _Let me help you_ , Charles tells him, later that night, as they lay entwined in Charles’ bed. _I can give your life new purpose, if you trust me._

When Cerellia declares war on its ancient enemy, and the massive fleet of the Cerellian Alliance circles New Earth, Logan is standing at Charles’ side.

\----

King Charles Xavier, ruler of the coalition of planets of Cerellia and the remnants of the New Earth Empire, falls in love for the third time when he is twenty four years old.

He discovers the shape-changer in his palace, disguised as a member of the delegation from the Andromeda system. She is a virtuoso of disguise, her abilities augmented to fool even the most powerful of the gifted in Charles’ Court. The Maranis have sent her to spy and to report on his activities, as his borders expand ever closer to their home world. Hundreds of years of oppression and war with their neighbors have made the Maranis a paranoid and insular race, and no outsider has seen a Marani in their true form for over a millennia.  

When she is ‘discovered’ by the King one day, searching through his study she laughs, fearless and defiant in the face of power her people have clearly under estimated. She does not beg for mercy or hide her purpose, clearly aware now of Charles’ ability to take the answers from her mind as he pleases. She asks only for a swift and clean death, and that her body be sent back to her people and buried with those of her clan.

Charles agrees to her terms, and asks for two things in return; her name, which she gives without hesitation – Raven of the Clan of Darkholme.

And her natural form, which gives Raven pause, until Charles swears to keep her secret, on his life and on the lives of his beloved Consorts. She reveals herself to him then, skin flickering from a pale cream to striking sapphire blue, soft curves shifting to a lithe body covered in scales, and waits to be ridiculed and shamed for her appearance. But Charles surprises her with a kiss instead, and tells her she is breathtaking, and that she should never feel the need to hide her true self. So entranced is he by her beauty and her strength of spirit, that he promises her safe passage home to Maran, with an offer of peace between their two peoples.

So it was that the Maranis came under the fierce protection of the King, who vowed to protect them from persecution, so they could continue their teachings and way of life unhindered. And when Raven of the Clan of Darkholme became Charles’ newest Consort, so too did the mass network of Marani informants and spies throughout the galaxy follow, to serve at the King’s command.

\-----

Emperor Charles Francis Xavier of the Cerellian Empire is at war when he falls in love for the fourth and final time, at the age of thirty.

He falls in love with a nothing more than a name, and a holo of the man smuggled in by one of Raven’s spies, from deep behind enemy lines. He falls in love with the tactical brilliance of the man commanding a fleet of warships against him, matching him move for move in a battle of wits and might.

He falls in love with the man’s intensity, and his passion for his people, no matter that he fights for a mad man bent on subjugation. Charles loves Erik Lehnsherr through every one of Shaw’s machinations and twisted lies; loves him even as his network of Marani spies works to manipulate the balance of power in the galaxy, pushing them ever closer to an explosive end.

Now, on the edge of the precipice he moves, reaching out with his telepathy across the vast emptiness of space between their armadas. His people have frozen the entirety of the Sirusian army – from admiral to gunners to infantry - leaving only Erik free from Cerellian mind control. But Erik is by no means defenseless, his powers amplified through technology supplied by remnants of the New Earth rebels. He holds every one of Charles’ ships in stasis with his control over metals, and the two find themselves at a critical impasse. 

Emma stands at his side, her face impassive, as she pushes Charles to act, once and for all. His power is immense as the number of stars in the sky; he can overpower Lehnsherr and shut him down with no more than a sigh.

But Charles has never been one to choose violence as a matter of course; instead he reaches deep into Erik’s mind and opens his own in return, sharing his lifelong vision for a galaxy united in peace and tolerance. He gives Erik his love, and his understanding without judgement, as he sifts through the layers of inflicted pain and unquenchable anger, until he reaches the little boy who lost his parents at the hands of a tyrant.

 _You’re not alone, Erik,_ he says, as the steel of his ship starts to crumple and groan. _We can end this together, you and I. Kill him and end a war fought for his vanity at the expense of millions of innocent lives. I want you by my side, Erik,_ he continues, as the ship begins to shake and Logan grabs his arm, desperate to move him to an escape pod as the panels spark and explode all around them.

_We want the same thing._

\-----

They are wrong about Charles Xavier.

He has never felt more love in his life than when he stands before the newly disbanded Senate, his four beloved Consorts at his side. When he is crowned Supreme Emperor of the Great Cerellian Empire, to unadulterated joy and the thunderous applause of the masses.

For what better reason is there than love, for a telepath to bring all the worlds of the known galaxy under his peaceful and benevolent rule?  

They are wrong about him.

Though in the end, it hardly matters.

 


End file.
